Slayers Prolouge
by Nuki Mouse
Summary: Just how does a young girl without a wit of talent for black magic become the Sorceress Supreme?
1. In The Beginning...

This is a story based on the popular Manga and Anime "Slayers" written by Hajime Kanzaka with illustrations done by Rui Araizumi. (anime by Software Sculpture) I do not own them or the copyright. This is purely a work of Fan Fiction and I make no money or profit of any kind by my writings. 

Nuki Mouse.

The End of Lina Inverse. 

Prologue: In The Beginning....

The old man stood in the highest room of the highest tower, gazing out the window, master of all he surveyed. His 'empire" lay before him, well actually more of a "kingdom" urr.. realm? ...duchy, fiefdom, protectorate, holding? 

"Fifty years an Adept level sorcerer, ya think I'd have some great city to rule or wealth beyond countin', but NO..., I'd had to be a teacher!" he mumbled to himself. "At least I'm 'The Master', da big cheese, head honcho, top dog...!

SHWAPP! The over ripe piece of fruit smacked into the window's combing, splattering him with a sickly sweet spray of juice and pulp. 

Looking down at the count yard of the ramshackle MagicGuild of Zefielia, he spied the red hair youth in the gray apprentice's robes, hiding behind the makeshift "fortress." the young'ns had built out of old crates. Small and whipcord thin, it looked like a young boy, but recently a faint hint of bust and (slightly) wider hips made it clear she just "decided" to be a girl instead. Her pixie-like face was turned upward, framed by her long thick red hair (it reached well down her back and was her secret pride and joy), and her blue eyes went round with shock as she spied were her errant throw had landed. All others, the initiates, apprentices, and novices, scattered like the four winds in all directions, abandoning their "leader" to her fate. 

Griped in the Master's right hand was a thick bundle of parchment, dozens of them, almost all bills, demands for payment from the local villagers or for supplies from the city. The Master flung them towards the apprentice, a white cloud of flittering papers rain down from the tower only to be caught up by the wind and blown to hell. 

"S@#&! Lina, get y'er scrawny butt up here, NOW!" he yelled down to the negligent trainee.

Of all the damn luck" Lina though, as she stomped up the spiral stairs of the Master's Tower. "I finally take an afternoon off from studin', the first time in a week and I hit Durian with a damn melon!"

Lina was both the newest and oldest junior apprentice presently in the guildhall. Admittedly she had gotten a late start, being then already ten when the norm for initiates was 8, Lina also took two years to master the simple entrance test that others pass in a few months. By her present age of twelve, by rights and normal progression, Lina would have been, _should_ have been at least a full apprentice, if not a senior. So what if I'm a little slow at black magic, there's other compensations, Luna can't reach or get me while I'm here! 

As she reached the great oak door to the Master's study, festooned with various arcane symbols and dire warnings to all who enter uninvited or with malice in their hearts, Lina lifted her hand to knock and like always the Master spoke before her fist could even touched the door. 

"Enter!" came the command, a deep and harmonious voice sounded, unlike the shrill one that had yelled from the window and the door opened by itself with a squeak of rusting hinges. 

She stepped into the room, a disorganized array of work tables and bookcases, scrolls and tomes piled high and empty dishes and wine bottles stacked on top. This was the Master's domain, and NO ONE touched it or cleaned it save his aide Which would be ME Lina subconsciously acknowledged, looking at the mess built up during the last three days of seclusion.

Still standing next to the window, Durian, the leader of the guildhall and her mentor, waited for his errant pupil to approach. Tall and thin, his shoulders stooped with age, yet his back still arrow straight, he was dressed in his black robes and cape of a full fledged Adept, a rank few masters ever reached. About his neck a gold chain hung adorned with a large medallion, also of gold, engraved with words in a strange language and a large red power gem in its center. His face was creased and furrowed like a gnarled piece of driftwood and his hair, or what was left of it, was greasy gray and unkempt. It was also flecked with yellow bits of honey-melon, along with his robe and hat.

The odor of sour wine was on his breath and he swayed side to side like a ship at sea. Lina could see that his normally piercing steel blue eyes were bloodshot red and her nose told her he hadn't washed in the last day or two (or three or four!), even though the study had a private bath.

"Lina, what in da Lord's name were ya doin' down there?" He demanded "if ya can't control ya'self, how canna ya control spells?" as he grasp onto a near by table to support him.

He's slurring his speech, and... Yeww... the smell! Drunk as a skunk already and it ain't two hours past mid-day Lina thought, dejectedly. When he's been a'drinkin, he always thinks of some stupid errands for me. 

"Master Durian, please forgive me. I'd found some rotting melons in the cellar and was having the some sport with the young'ns, a mock war with the fruit as weapons. I never meant to include you in the battle." Lina spoke in a slow calm voice, dropping to her knees, hands clasped before her in penitence and extra large "puppy dog" eyes that sparkled like blue sapphires as she dialed her 'innocent petite little cutie' factor up to its highest level, hoping to minimize the Master's wrath. 

"Ten punushment marks!" Durian flatly stated, unmoved by her antics. "After I release you..." he followed it up, "Ya can stand da evening duty in da shrine by yerself."

The harshness of the punishment caused Lina to miss the last part of the statement ten marks? TEN! I'll be three weeks working that off! Lina suddenly started, as the last part of her "punishment" sunk in Evening duty by myself? That means no one to watch me? she realized, her bright blue eyes aglow with anticipation. Alone in the shrine library...!

The Sorcerer's Guildhall of Zefielia had at its heart a small shrine to the Demon "god" king of black magic, Ruby-Eye Shabranigdo. The fact that he was an evil demon king and "dead" (or sealed, to be more correct) didn't matter, it was to his POWER that the shrine served. That power was that of chaos, destruction and death, and was considered evil by most. But Master Durian felt differently, the Guildhall taught it was your actions that made you good or evil, not where you drew your magic from.

The Shrine was old, dating from the war between Shabranigdo and Ceiphied the Dragon-god, when Ruby-Eye was thrown down and his body was split into 7 pieces. Rumor had it one of the pieces was hidden deep in the shrine, guarded by magic seals, along with many other treasures and artifacts amassed over many thousands of years. Guarded by both arcane and physical means, traps abounded and only a master amulet disarmed them all.

Master Durian saw his young assistant's eyes light up at the thought of 6 hours in the shrine's "secret" library. It was "secret" only because it was a test, the goal of every student to "sneak" in and read them, thus learning their craft faster along with sorting the sheep from the shepherds. 

Not that Lina needs to read 'em again Durian knew. Lina was one of his favorites, though she had not a lick of talent for black magic. Every spell she tried, every one she memorized, almost always failed. Even those as simple as a light spell. Durian thought.

He tried to get 'er in to Ceiphied's shrine or a shamanist guild, being what skills she had were in white and astral magics. For some reason da Knight of Ciephied all but demanded her transfer, but the mere suggestion drove the girl to hysterics! I willn't send da girl against her will, not even for da Knight, though he tried to change her mind. He even told Lina it might be her only hope to use advanced magic. 

But that didn't stop Lina, she just redoubled her efforts to learn. There was not a book or tome in the guild she hadn't read, nor a spell un-memorized. Even the dreaded "dragon slave." Durian thought. But learnin' and usin' are to different breeds of cats. 

But Lina never gave up, and by sheer force of will had won a place in the guild, even if she'll never advance another rank or level in it. But she maybe da next lore master Durian knew, a job that require no magic skill or abilities, just a thirst for knowledge and the ability to remember what was learned, talents Lina did have in abundance.

Durian never met a person more willful and obstinate. If will power alone determined magic ability, Lina world be a force ta be reckoned with, Durian felt. He suddenly became aware that the young girl was still waiting upon his pleasure.

Slipping the heavy medallion and chain from his neck, he thrust them at Lina. "Here" He ordered, "Put this away in da shrine when ya go there, I willn't need it tonight." Durian knew he shouldn't let a apprentice, even a trusted one, run around with a master's amulet, but he was too tired to trudge down to the shine himself. 'side, Lina doesn't have da power ta use it

Durian wasn't drunk, contrary to Lina's belief otherwise, he was actually just dead tired and bone weary. Oh he drinks, even Durian would admit that, but the wine he had over the past few nights was just enough to wash down his meals. It was that cursed tome, the translation of a translation, a prophecy about "Two Sisters" and the death of one of the five Mazoku lords and the (possible) re-birth of Shabranigdo.

It told of a great Black Sorceress, perhaps the strongest ever, who would gain entry to the very shrine located below and that a tremendous power in her would awake and she'll emerge clothed in garments made ages ago by a great mages who foresaw her need.

It had kept him awake and engrossed for days, it was fascinating as well as frightening. The Black Sorceress foretold will be so powerful that she'll merge with the Lord of Nightmares herself, among other great deeds, but then will either become the re-born Ruby-Eye, or a Mazoku will marry her, or she'll die to save the world. 

It also told of her sister, an eccentric Knight Paladin of Ceiphied, also perhaps the most powerful ever, who would choose to live a humble life earning her own keep rather than one of leisure at Ceiphied's temple. It said she would force her sister to marry, but it was unclear to whom. It might be the "son" or "disciple" of the Knight's best friend, but it also said it was a Mazoku who would wed the sister, and there was reference to a third suitor, the sorceress's "protector?", but which she will marry was unclear. 

The rest of the tome was lost or un-decipherable, though hints of some great destiny or conflict did remain, enough to frighten the 90 year old sorcerer. It's a good thing that it's justa tale, some drunkin seer's dream more likely inspired by da bottom of a wine bottle than da Lord of Nightmares Durian mused. Such wild things just didna happen, imagine a powerful sorceress needin a "protector" or da Knight of Ceiphied workin' as a WAITRESS! 

With that, Durian retired to his private chambers, for a long and well deserved sleep.

* * * * * * * * * * * * 


	2. ...There Was A Young Girl...

The End of Lina Inverse. 

Prologue: ...There Was a Young Girl... 

The only door to the Shrine of Shabranigdo was located deep under the foundations of the Master's tower, dead center of the great Guildhall of Zefielia. Five other towers ranged around the Master's tower in a great circle and the walls and outbuildings stretched between them, making a giant pentagram of the complex. Some said it was by accident, some said by design, part of a giant seal spell around the master's tower, or the shrine beneath.

Lina descended the stairs, plunging straight, steep and deep until she reached the cave like chamber before the door. Round and rough hewn, the chamber was bare of any furnishings save twin torch holders flanking the shrine's outer door There a tall bored senior journeyman leaned against the wall, arms crossed, and eyes half closed. Startling to full wakefulness, he stood before the door and spoke in a tired, jaded voice.

"Who is it that enters the Shrine? By what right are you here?" The door-warden asked her in ritual challenge, peering down at the tiny girl. 

"Lina, apprentice to Master Durian, by who's right and permission I'm here" she replied, trying to make her voice sound more mature (it failed), handing Jarick a note from the Master telling of her punishment.

Jarick read the note, and the weariness was gone from his eyes and body. Although unusual, it was not unheard of for a mere apprentice to be assigned door-warden, especially Lina.

Jarick looked the girl over and saw she was trying to look like the dejected, miserable delinquent reporting from some arduous punishment one would expect to see, but he wasn't fooled. "Don't get too lost in yer readin, remember to be out 'ere at midnight, when Sara comes to relieve, if ya knows what good for ya." he warned in a stern voice.

Lina just stared up at the tall journeyman's face, innocence and bafflement in her eyes, as if she had no idea what he was talking about. Jarick grunted and gave the girl a smile and a pat on the shoulder before rushing up the stairs, and to the large steins of ale he was sure to find in the common room.

As Jarick's footfalls faded from hearing, Lina stood before the Door. It was eight feet high and six across, a solid slab of black stone, dull and without any marks or blemishes though it be thousands of years old. It was enclosed by a twin pillars of the same rock but these were covered by engraved symbols of power and warding, as deep and as sharp edged as the day they were cut, millenniums before.

Lina took a deep breath and drove all thoughts from her mind, save for the door spell. It was simple, a mere line and any sorcerer of the guild could cast it, no matter how junior. "By the power I wield in the name of Shabranigdo, I command OPEN!" Nothing happened, which didn't surprise Lina at all. Others would joke and tease when took some one more than one try, but most times it took Lina at least four or five attempts before the door would yield to her.

Lina stepped closer, ready to try again, when she felt a sudden warmth touch her chest. The Master's amulet? she wondered, feeling it pressing against the warm spot as it hung around her neck, under her robes. Before she had time for any further thoughts, a dull rumble filled the room and the door slide aside and the way into the shrine was open. 

Lina eyes went round in astonishment, never had the door open on her first attempt. The Master's amulet? she wondered for the second time, did... IT? ...cause the door to open. she asked herself.

The hall before her matched the door's dimensions of eight high and six wide and it was again made of the same dull black stone, unmarked and unadorned, save for crystal globes embedded high up on the walls every dozen feet or so. Light refused to reflect off the stone, and darkness blacker than the deepest night seemed to ooze from the walls. 

She took a flaming brand from one of the torch holders and walked through the door, but found to her amazement it was not needed. As she stepped close, the globes mounted high on the walls blazed to life, magic lanterns lit for the first time in living memory. Not even Durian can light these! she thought, feeling a giddy rush of power. She knew she should leave, to back out of the shrine and summon the Master, but her curiosity, her thirst to learn and explore drove her on. Like all twelve year olds, Lina had a reckless disregard for danger and an overly strong believe in her own immortality. 

Long and straight the hall ran, turning neither left nor right. As Lina walked down it, globe after globe burst to life, flooding the hall with bright white light. Markings and symbols never seen before, and words of power in languages thought long dead, glowed in silver on the black walls and Lina spent many along minute studying each new marking or inscription.

A chill washed over Lina, and she felt as if hidden eyes were watching her, judging her, intensifying the further she went. Finally she reached an open area, "The Crossroads" as it was nicknamed, were the main hallway ended and you had a decision, turn left or right down two different hallways. To the left the hall lead to the heart of the shrine, the altar room, and the right-hand hall lead to the shrine library and treasure-house. 

But straight ahead..., it ended. But not in a flat wall, rather a recessed vaulted alcove, 6 feet high at the point, 3 at its widest and maybe 4 feet deep. It resembled a statuary niche, like you might find at a temple but no carved figure ever graced it. It was bare and empty as a schoolhouse in summer and always had been.

Lina started to turn down the right hand passage, towards the library, her ultimate goal when a flash of red caught her eyes. Looking into the alcove, on its the back wall chest high was a bright ruby red spot the size of a copper piece that glowed like a baleful single red lidless eye. It surrounded by a recessed circular indentation a hand span across and maybe a quarter inch deep. 

It caught her eye and held it, like an iron nail to a lode stone. Hundreds of times Lina passed the alcove but never had she or anyone else seen a mark or indentation upon that wall. Forward, into the alcove she stepped, staring as if hypnotized by the disc shaped recess. It sparked a memory, a recollection, some where Lina had seen it before, a circular disc with markings around its edge and in the center a red... a red... what? A jewel?

Power gem? Damn! Lina thought, fumbling under her robes. She drew forth Master Durian's amulet and looked closely at it and the wall. Yes! It matched! The indentation on the wall was a mirror image of the Master amulet. Slowly, instinctively, she pressed the amulet into the indentation. It rocked from side to side slightly, not quite fitting, slowly she twisted the amulet and suddenly it snapped firmly into place and seemed to sink another quarter inch or so into the wall. 

The amulet blazed with a golden light like the first light of dawn, then darken to a deep red glow like sunset on a hazy evening. Then amulet seem to melt somewhat and two rivulets of hot bright red like molten metal ran from it, one straight down and the other straight up the wall, deifying gravity, and both leaving a glowing red line behind. The rivulets each reached their ends, floor and ceiling, at the same moment and briefly they and the amulet blazed gold once more, then all light or glow disappeared as if quenched in cold water and the wall was dark and black again. 

A metallic "PING" sounded from the amulet, still mounted on the wall, and it echoed up and down the halls building louder and more deafening, crashing like a thousand cymbals and chimes before dying away to utter silence. To Lina's dread and dismay the Master's amulet broke in half and fell free to the ground below.

Then a earsplitting "CRACK" like the bole of a great tree splitting asunder sounded from the alcove wall and it too echoed down the halls like the boom of many thunderclaps. The wall split in two, top to bottom, down the center along the path taken by the rivulets. Slowly, ponderously, each half of the wall slid apart, recessing back into the alcove's sides, exposing a dark blank opening with no walls or ceiling visible, like the maw of a giant beast or a door into a great cavern.

A gust of hot dry air, Or breath? Lina wondered, stale with a metallic tang emerged from the opening and blew over Lina and down the hall. As the wind passed by, globe after globe flickered out like a breeze on candles and the silver markings on the walls faded to black. Even the flaming brand Lina still held was extinguished. Lina was in darkness total, deeper than the darkest night, surrounding her like an enveloping blanket, heavy and oppressive. 

No light, no sound penetrated the inky blackness, even the sound of her breath was muted but Lina could still hear, or rather _feel,_ her heart beating quick and loud in her chest. Hours that seemed like days that seemed like decades but in reality only a few seconds passed. Alone and deathly afraid, Lina's sanity was slipping and her mind filled the endless silence with imagined noises, squeaks and squeals, animalistic utterances too low to recognize. Vague shapes also seemed to move about her, patches of total darkness that somehow stood out against the inky blackness, swirling around her, watching her.

In her fear and growing panic, Lina would have bolted from the shrine, if she only knew what direction to go. She turned to the right, but couldn't tell if she spun half around or made three complete revolutions in the total blackness. Her arms shot out and her left hand touched the cold smooth surface of stone. She pressed her body fully against the wall and laid her left cheek against it, the feel of its cold hardness giving her mind an anchor in her sea of fear. 

Lina groped and slid her way along the wall, but after only a step her left hand felt the knife edge of the stone as the wall ended, or rather turned down another passageway. The Crossroads! Lina mentally cried out in relief.

A half dozen feet, just a couple steps, I'll be across it and in the main hall and then back to the door! Lina turned to face where the main hallway must be and started to take a hesitant step towards it when her right foot struck and almost tripped over a small rock or something laying on the ground. It clanged loudly against another stone or rock, the first real sound she heard since the darkness had come. Lina took another step, then two, feeling around in front of her for the mouth of the main hall and the way out when a sudden realization hit her.

A rock, in here? Clang? As in metallic? Lina wondered as she was unable to find the wall or passage that should be just before her. Metallic! The AMULET! That means...! The panic in Lina grew again, the "rock" she had stumbled over was no stone but the broken amulet left laying before the new "doorway" at the alcove's rear. Instead of being at the "crossroads" she had walked straight into the newly opened portal into whatever lay beyond it.

Lina stood frozen, ready to turn and flee when a small spark of stark white light burst forth, a dozen or more yards ahead of her and at least 10 feet above the floor. Like a lone star hanging low on the night sky it shined and drew Lina like a moth to a flame. She slowly moved forward, first one step then another, towards the tiny point of light. It blazed brighter and more intense with every step taken, lighting the chamber with a pale luminescence, growing into a silver-white luminescent ball. 

The chamber was round, a hundred feet or more across with a domed ceiling 50 feet high, a perfect half sphere and made of the same black stone as the rest of the shrine. The light or star or whatever it was hung in the dead center of the room, halfway between roof and floor with no visible means of support. 

Directly under the light was a solid slab of white marble the size of a small bed, a yard high and six by three feet in length and width. Some one or thing laid upon the slab and its clothes, weapons and decorations shown brightly, not a speck of dust or tarnish on them.

A bier! The body of a dead lord or mage from ages past? Lina asked herself. But as she stepped close, she saw that no body laid upon the slab or else it had withered until not even the dust of its bones remained. It was just that the clothes on the slab were laid out as if an invisible body was still wearing them.

_And what a set of clothes it was! _It beggared the ones she wore as threadbare hand-me-downs, more stains and patches than good cloth. They were the attire of a Master class, no! an Adept class Sorcerer! They were clothes such as Lina had only worn in her fondest dreams.

Quickly, without thinking or wondering if it was the right or even _smart _thing to do, Lina had stripped to her underthings, dropping her old clothes in a heap before the marble slab. Lina seized up the leggings, they felt like fine silk though they were thick and tough, and to her surprise they were still supple and soft as well. The leggings were a bright ruby red in color and she slipped them on.

They're too big! Lina saw as they hung loosely bunched up around her waist yet still there were many inches left over down at her feet. Suddenly a strange tingling started at her toes and spread up her legs, followed by silky smooth constriction that traveled the full length of the leggings and to her astonishment, when done, the red leggings were now a perfect fit.

Over this she donned a pair of sunshine yellow mini-shorts and a red tunic with a steel gray hem and edging, tight fitting round the neck and short shelved, or would have been if it didn't hang to her elbows and knees. Then the same weird sensation passed over her torso as did her legs and the tunic fit as well! It even cinched in at her waist and flared out over her hips making a proper little skirt of its lower portion, almost too short to be decent or not long enough to be indecent, depending on your views.

The tiny yellow shirt or cloth band had Lina confused. Being only twelve, petite, and ...well... somewhat under developed in some areas, she did not yet learned about chest bands or breast bindings, depending on what you want call them and ended up slipping it on OVER the outside of the tunic. The yellow chest band did accent well with the tunic and helped emphasize what little bust she had there, plus she thought it looked nice and made a great fashion statement. But for years to come, no one had the guts (or stupidity) to tell her she was wearing her "bra" on the outside.

And there was a jet black belt with a red jewel clasp and gold earrings and white gloves as smooth as silk yet as tough as steel gauntlets. A wide black hair band that matched her tunic belt and to her joy hid the twin moles on her forehead. Boots of light gray, soft as rabbit fur on the inside and as hard as a rhino's hide on the outside. AND A SWORD! with a blue and gold engraved scabbard and matching belt, light as a feather, thin as a rapier yet double edged, meant to hack and slash, not poke little holes. And Sharp! As sharp as a serpents tooth! Lina discovered while testing its keenness with her thumb.

At last came the cape, an ankle length sable cloak with gold trim on the outside, violet lining on the inside, with a high collar and twin matching shoulder plates of blue-black amour, adorned with red and green gemstones. The plates were edged with a blue rim and they were all polished to a high gloss like black marble. The whole thing was held in place by a gold chain with a rectangular clasp that laid across her neck like a choker. 

Now fully adorn and clothed in the new raiment she found, Lina wished she had a mirror to see herself I bet the red of the tunic sets off the blue in my eyes! So captivated was Lina with her new attire no thought or question about keeping it entered her mind. She found it and it were hers and that was OK as far as Lina was concerned. 

Then a little reality set in. Save for one small magic light, Lina was alone in the dark, far from the great door of the shrine that she should be guarding. Time had no meaning, no way to judge its passing, one hour could had passed or a whole day, she couldn't tell or guess. Though it can't be midnight yet, Sara would have raised an alarm if the door was found open and unguarded Lina knew. I must get out, hid my outfit... 

Still afraid, Lina could not force herself to leave the pale pool of light, even if she did know where the main hallway was. Then the shadows seemed to deepen and all color faded to black and white. Lina looked up in terror, the light from the ball was now steadily fading, going dim then dark. Blackness flowed around her again but this time, mercifully, it lasted only for a moment. There! Another light! Lina rejoiced. 

Is it the way out? With a little luck maybe she'll be back at the shrine's doors before she was missed!

* * * * * * * * * 


	3. ...Who Became a Great Sorceress...

The End of Lina Inverse. 

Prologue: ...Who became a Great Sorceress...

Still afraid, Lina could not force herself to leave the pale pool of light, even if she did know where the main hallway was. Then the shadows seemed to deepen and all color faded to black and white. Lina looked up in terror, the light from the ball was now steadily fading, going dim then dark. Blackness flowed around her again but this time, mercifully, it lasted only for a moment. There! Another light! Lina rejoiced.

Is it the way out? With a little luck maybe she'll be back at the shrine's doors before she was missed!

Indeed another light now grew, a sinister dull red glow like a hot forge was reflecting off the far wall of the chamber and Lina slowly walked towards it. Its hue seemed menacing, foreboding, if not downright evil, but she could not deny its lure, its attraction. Then she could see the light's source, a glowing red-amber stone, ten inches high, shaped like a half melted pyramid, sitting on a waist high block of dull ebony black stone before a flatten portion of the wall beyond it. Tongues of fire seemed to flicker deep with in it, yet no warmth did it radiant forth.

The baleful red light reflected off the flatten wall, reveling an elaborate engraving almost like a mural. The mural, if that be what it was, seem to be of a chart or diagram, five red-gold circles around a larger central star of red. All were inter-connected by thin silver lines making the whole thing a giant 5 sided pentagram with the star at its center. Words in a language unknown to Lina, unknown to all but the eldest of the demon race, the mazoku, also covered the mural making it look more like an illustration from a book...! Damn, its a different shape and there's no symbol for the god of gods, the Lord of Nightmares, but it could be a diagram showing Ruby-Eye and his five demon lords....

As if called by the thought of the demon lords a voice, low and guttural, rasped out the same challenge as the door-warden. _"Who is it that enters the Shrine? By what right are you here?" _and the amber stone flashed and flickered in time to the words, as if the stone itself was speaking.

Taken by total surprise, Lina answered the voice with out thinking, falling back on the ritual response to the challenge. "Lina, apprentice to Master Durian, by who's right and permission I'm here" she replied in a timid voice.

The invisible eyes Lina felt watching since entering the shrine, intensified their glare, dissecting her, peering _into _her mind, her memories. Lina felt like a bug under a magnifying glass, hoping not to be crushed or burnt alive by the invisible presence. Again it asked, in a louder, harsher, more commanding voice, a slightly different demand _"WHO IS IT THAT ENTERS THE SHRINE? WHY ARE _**YOU**_ HERE?" _

The voice echoed across the chamber until it seemed as if a host of demons were demanding Lina's response, she knew it didn't want or care about her guild rank or master's name. Slowly, haltingly she replied "I... I'm Le... Lina In...verse..., I... I am aan a... sorceress..., I... am here t-to learn ma... mag-ic...." She stammered out, then added a question of her own. "WWho-o..., wa-what... aa...are y-you?"

"_Touch the stone and all will be granted" _the voice requested. Lina knew, deep down, that she shouldn't, but that voice was so compelling she stepped forward without thinking and raised her right hand to touch it. NO! STOP! the voice of reason cried out inside her, and Lina's hand hesitated.

"_TOUCH THE STONE!" _ The voice imperiously commanded. "_Great powers and gifts wait if you just touch the stone!" _Lina's hand inched towards the stone, still unsure of the wisdom of listening to talking rock hidden in a shrine to a demon lord, but felt that just touching it could not harm her. Lina finally placed her hand over the rounded top of the amber stone and a strange warmth edged up her arm and flowed over her body. 

Lina tried to pull back, to release the stone, but her body was unresponsive and her hand was stuck fast to stone as if merged with it. Then pain seared though out her head and then something, a presence?, also seemed to flow out of the stone, trying to invade her mind and storm the ramparts of her persona, her free will. Two red spectral eyes pierced deep into her soul, trying to push her out, take control. Red... eyes? ...Ruby? SH-SHABRANIGDO! Lina blanched in terror as the demon lord tried to overwhelm her.

It was unthinkable to Ruby Eye that a "mere" human girl could possess the will to resist HIM. So sure was Shabranigdo of his victory that he did not wait for Lina's final surrender and defeat before he began to infuse himself into her Id. The Id, that secret area of Lina's subconscious were lived all her self doubts and foul thoughts, where what malice and petty hatreds she had dwelt. 

Here Shabranigdo was strong, after all this was the source of his power, the darkness and destruction in men's (or women's) souls. His power burned and surged there, deep in Lina mind, blasting open the clogged channels and fouled reservoirs that stifled Lina's use of black magic energies, connecting and feeding that power to his new "minion", to make her strong and worthy of him. Here was where he would dwell inside this creature, and he would make her one of his mazoku, and in the fullness of time he would burst forth from her body like a moth from its cocoon and in her death, he would live again. 

At first all Lina could do was tremble in fear, her mind was in agony, pain tortured her soul and she was unable to defy the piercing eyes of Shabranigdo, the demon king of the Mazoku and lord of all black magic. But then at the brink of the abyss, at the very end of her rope, when her total surrender and acquiescence seemed all but assured, Lina's stubborn will, her ego, her _spirit_, welled up and she began to fight back and to resist.

And to Lina amazement she felt the presence reel back and retreat as if repulse and reviled by her will and spirit. Ruby Eye was shocked, surely this _girl _did not think she could deny HIM. He stuck back at Lina's will, whispering silent thoughts into her mind of how weak and pitiful she was, how great and mighty was He, and how futile was her resistance. Almost it worked, almost she gave in, but Lina was always the optimist, never a pessimist and such thoughts were strange and un-natural to her and she drove them out and listen to them no more.

Then Ruby Eye tried a different tact, "_You will be my vassal, I will grant you great powers._ _I will make you mighty!_" the voice tempted her. "_I will show you..." _and visions of mighty armies of humans, trolls, and monsters rallying to her call. Of cities burning as she rode triumphantly though them, heaps of ill-gotten plunder laid before her feet, of great and terrible spells at her beck and call, and of vast harems of men in sexual servitude to her. All she had to do was to submit and serve HIM and all this and more would be hers.

But Lina was the younger daughter of a simple merchant, honest and good, and white magic and its virtues ran strong in her family, VERY strong. Lina craved good food and lots of it, pocket money to spend freely, good friends and adventure. Her dreams were of Prince Charming and gala balls, of being a great _benevolent_ sorceress and casting mighty spells, of learning new things and finding great treasures, and of great quests and deeds but in the name of good, not evil causes. 

This was what Lina wanted, but it was nothing Shabranigdo could grant, save maybe the magic, "_I will teach you, you will learn." _ He whispered in her mind, but the price he wanted, her soul and eventually her life, was too high. Lina rallied her spirit and its basic goodness was a force Ruby Eye could not withstand, or even long tolerate and he left her mind, but not her body. _If you don't respond to the "carrot" perhaps the WHIP will do! _

Anger and rage radiated from the amber stone, and it flared to a blinding red light and Lina cried out as the light burned and seared her. She had stopped Ruby Eye from buying or seizing her soul, but she didn't stop him from trying to hurt or even kill her. Pain lanced though out her body, and the stone felt as if it was draining her life energies, feeding on them. All she had to do was give in and the pain would stop, the voice of Shabranigdo whispered to her. 

Nothing Lina could do seemed to stop the pain that racked her body, all the spells and enchantments she had learned at the guild were worse than useless. Not only could she not cast them, they were the stuff that Ruby Eye was lord of, Black Magic. She would have better luck dousing a forest fire with grain alcohol. 

Her life was over, this Lina knew beyond a doubt. If Lina did not submit, Shabranigdo would not let her live, and SHE would NOT submit! Ruby Eye had lost, had failed to corrupt her soul or break it, and He was NOT a "Good Loser." Lina last thoughts turned to the home she left years before, a mother and father that loved her and quite unexpectedly to her "perfect" older sister.

Luna, the scourge of her young life, the sister that always did every thing first and better than her, the one that everyone thought of as "Perfect." When Lina showed (White) magic affinity at five, _LUNA_ had cast her first spells at age four, While she was a scrawny bean pole a _Short_ scrawny bean pole at that!, _LUNA_ was already tall and blonde and... well, ro_bust_ly built. Everything she tried, everything she did, _LUNA_ had already done, and BETTER! 

To top it off, Luna was also a strict martinet who ruled over her baby sis with fist and fury, but Lina also knew she could be a little hellion that probably deserved MOST of Luna's creative "Punishments." The strain and effort of competing with her unbeatable sibling had finally forced Lina to a different path. If she couldn't beat her sis in White Magic, Lina would learn Black and to chaos with Luna! 

But now that death was looking her in the face, Lina wished she could see and talk to her older sis one last time, there were words and actions that laid between them that Lina wished she had time to set aright, now it was too late!. Even now she could "hear" Luna chanting one of her White Magic prayers against evil she loved to evoke when ever she chased her little sis. 

"In the name of Holy Dragon Ceiphied, Goddess-protector of this land. In your blessed name and in your service, against all evil help me stand...." Lina repeated the words she remembered so well. 

She was resigned to death, after all what could SHE do against Ruby-Eye? But her sister's prayer did help to bring Lina some level of comfort and again she repeated it, and then yet again. Each time it seemed harder and harder to say, as it seemed to be sapping her energy, but each time the pain and torments of Shabranigdo also seemed to be more bearable. _Third times the charm!_, another of Luna's favorite sayings, popped into Lina's mind. 

A light friendly... what? Touch?, Spirit?, deep within her seemed to answered her third recital of the prayer. A new presence invaded her mind, one that brought blessed peace, renewed strength and hope, and against Ruby Eye it helped her stand. Blessed...? Help me stand...? a stunned Lina realized, Ceiphied! Luna's prayer! Once again, by proxy, Luna had proved herself better, stronger than her, but this ONE time Lina was glad for it. 

With the strength of will and spirit, newly bolstered and no longer needed to fight off Ruby Eye's soul alone, Lina finally managed to wrest her hand away from the stone. As if a switch was turn off or a candle snuffed out, both the searing pain and all light in the chamber disappeared and Lina was again plunged into total darkness.

Lina turned and ran, not caring what direction, save away from the stone. She wished for light, and silently mouth the "lighting" spell that she could... sometimes..., cast. A globe of energy 8 inches across instantly bloomed to life and floated above her, radiating a pure white light. She saw an opening and by its size and shape, it _must_ lead to the alcove. Sure enough, the alcove it was and Lina ran though it and out into "the crossroads." 

Suddenly lights and radiances from a dozen un-hooded torches and a score of light spells bathing the crossroads and main hall in a brilliance, driving out all darkness. Dozens of sorcerers were crowding the hall, robes of the journey men and masters, weapons in hand and spells crackling around them. It appeared to Lina that the entire guild was present in force, ready for battle. 

Relief and euphoria filled Lina as she rushed towards her friends and teachers, but they fell back in mass into defensive stances and spells sped towards her. She flung her self flat on the floor as several fire balls shot over her, barely missing. A trio of flare arrows came next, crashing against her cape shrouded back, but though singed and soot-stained Lina was otherwise unhurt. 

"SURRENDER, YA EVIL HAG!" a familar voice yelled "YA FAIL'D! Ya couldn't break da god seal on ol' Ruby Eye, but if ya give back un-harm'd the child, we'll let ya live" 

"MASTER!" Lina cried out "Wa... WHY?" was all she could force out amid the sobs and tear of anguish peering up from the floor at the figure standing in the forefront, that of Master Durian. His stern face was masked with a cold fury, his sea blue eyes were ice cold with contempt and in his hands...! In his hands was a ball of pure energy, a deadly spell ready to cast. 

Master Durian looked down at the wretched creature that laid before him. It had yet to use any magic, but it wore the attire of an Adept and his inner sight told him it was powerful, _very _powerful. It had broke the seal to the inner sanctum and open the door, no mean feat. Pain and sorrow filled Durian, Lina missing! He hoped beyond reason that Lina was still alive, but vile creatures such as this one seldom showed any mercy, just malice and death. It's one of Shaby's mazoku, evil and cruel, as Durian's anger welled up I'll kill it if it even _touched_ Lina! as his heart ached for the young girl who was more than just a student to him Da old shouldn't out live da young. 

Hag? is that all I'm to him, doesn't he... like me? Lina mentally wailed. The man who was her mentor and a surrogate father, who had been _friend_ was ready to kill her. He thinks I tried to free Shabranigdo, that I would or could hurt a child... ran though her mind before sobbing out "P-Please..., d-don't... hurt m-me! I d-d-didn't me-mean any h-harm, I d-didn't m-me-mean to ba-brake your am..., am-U-let!"

How typical, it pleads for its life Durian's lip curled up in disgust. Oh don't ya hurt me, all I did was kill'd Lina he thought mockingly. Shows how little THEY (meaning mazuko) care for life, It thought I'd be more upset over me damn amulet! Still looking down at prone figure with its pure white hair and red eyes, wizen with age, Durian saw its head was upturned to stare at him, and tears were streaming down its face. Its... _crying_? ITS CRYING! Rage at its gall raced through Durian and he raise a foot to stomp on it, like he would any foul vermin. NO! that won't do it, won't HURT it! and instead poured his anger into the glowing globe of red, a Fire Ball to end all Fire Balls I'd wish I dare'd use Dragon Slave, but that'll toast us all! 

Durian bent down, closer, shoving the glowing ball in the mazuko face, so it could SEE its death. For the first time Durian noticed that its face was strangely un-creased and not a wrinkle or age spot showed, As if... 'IT'... was a child! Durian spat. The light from the ball cast its red glare over the hag, making its snow white hair seem red in color. A vision of the same face with skin of pale peach, the red lit hair, and blue eyes instead of the red ones suddenly swam before his mind and he gasped out "Li-! ...Lina?" 

The spell died in Durian's hands and when given life when death seemed certain, Lina did what most twelve year-olds would do. She passed out and remembered no more of that evening. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * 


End file.
